I watch him go, rooted to the spot. Ace hadn’t been an ass to me. I don’t know if that’s because Rob got through to him that I’m not at terrible person after all, or maybe he just needed to get some things off his chest. Maybe in the morning, Ace will hate me again because he told me things he never intended to, but there are times when you go to nap for twenty minutes and it morphs into two hours. Your body just needed the rest that badly. Sometimes, your mind and your heart need a sounding board, and that’s what I had been for him. Even if he reverts to being an ass again to me tomorrow, I won’t judge him for it.
We all have our traumas, the bullshit we have to deal with on a daily basis. College should be an escape at least to some extent, but it seems like Ace’s father might come to see all of his games. Ace needs a release, an outlet. I doubt he gives his father shit in return for all of crap his father dishes out.
“If you need me to be your punching bag, Ace, so be it,” I murmur, but I can’t help wondering about Gabe and his past and why Ace almost went psycho on me over it.
CHAPTER22
Learningabout Ace and his parents forces me to rethink everything. No, childhood trauma and issues with mommy and daddy doesn’t mean that I should automatically forgive them for bullying me, but it can make me understand them. It will make things easier, I think, but while Ace was willing to talk to me, I’m not so sure the others will be willing to.
I’m tired still, my brain on seriously overload, especially because of everything Ace told me on top of my paper, but I’m also hungry. Robyn answers my text to say that she’s not hungry yet, so she’s going to head over to the café for a much later time, and Michaela and the others are all tied up now as well. While I’m not the kind of person to be unwilling to eat alone, I also don’t want to be stuck with my thoughts right now. If Ace had paused more, if there had been lulls in the conversation, I probably would’ve shared a little about my parents, a lot more than just the fact that my father is an asshole. Ace knows he’ll never live up to his father’s ideal, that he’ll never be good enough, but that realization alone is going to be enough to get him to stop caring about what his father thinks or says about him. That’s on Ace to get over. No one else can help him with that.
I almost turn around and think about going to the library to see Ace, but that would hardly be fair to his study date, whoever she is.
I haven’t been with the trio alone very often. Would Zac treat me differently if the others weren’t around? What about Gabe? Somehow, I don’t think Gabe will be as forthcoming and forthright as Ace had been. Maybe Ace just spoke with his father, and that’s why Ace had been willing to overlook what I almost did to Gabe.
Answers. That’s what I want almost as much as food in my belly.
My gaze drops to the phone in my hand, and before I know what I’m doing, I’m calling up Rob.
Smart or not, I don’t know, but it’s too late to end the call because he’s already answered.
“Katie, how are you?” he asks, his voice oozing with sexual charm.
I shiver, hating that his voice alone is enough to turn me on. “Do you want to eat dinner with me? At the café. It doesn’t mean anything. Not a date. Nothing like that. Of course it isn’t, since you don’t want to date me.”
He sighs. “Katie, what I meant—”
“Yes or no? Because I’m heading to the café now, and I can eat alone. That’s perfectly acceptable.”
“I’ll be there in five.”
It’s about a five-minute walk from the library to the café, and as I stroll up, I spy Rob leaning against the wall, waiting for me. He looks like James Dean with the way he has his ankles crossed, arms crossed, head down. When he lifts his head to meet my gaze, as if he has a homing beacon that lets him know when I’m around, my breathing hitches. He isn’t just handsome. He’s beautiful.
“You almost made me think you were pulling my leg,” he says.
“Because you got here first? You had no idea how close or far I was from the café when I called.”
“True. Maybe I just wanted to hurry up and see you again.”
“This is just dinner,” I remind him. “Nothing more.”
“We can talk, can’t we?”
“I was hoping for that.”
He flashes his most charming smile. “Well, I can fulfill all of yoru hopes and dreams.”
“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that.”
“Trust me.”
“Not sure I do that either.”
Rob snorts. “You will.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“You love to say that to me.”